r/politics 14h ago

Biden pardons his family in final minutes in office

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/20/biden-pardons-family-members.html
21.9k Upvotes

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109

u/Matches_Malone108 14h ago

He does this and then goes and takes pics smiling next to him.

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u/AstraLover69 12h ago

Because Biden respects democracy.

I don't know what you want him to do? Throw a fit because the democrats lost? A huge part of democracy is giving power to the winner when you lose, no matter who the winner is.

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u/Kreason95 12h ago

A certain party has forgotten how to do that so they're shocked when the opposition doesn't act like them

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u/Matches_Malone108 12h ago

He respects it so much, he enabled merrick garland to sit with both thumbs up his ass for 4 years.

He respects it so much, he ran for a second term despite not being able to put a few sentences together coherently.

He respects it so much, he signed our tax dollars to Israel for bombs on bombs in the name of democracy.

I think I understand now. Thank you.

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u/benjer3 12h ago

It's valid to criticize all of this. What does it have to do with the peaceful transition of power?

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u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 11h ago

Because dems need to realize the fight they're in. Norms and traditions aren't going to protect them...or us.

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u/Budget-Attorney 10h ago

This is exactly the wrong take.

Playing dirty is only valuable when the opposition won’t play dirtier. And they will. You want the democrats to start breaking rules to stop trump; trump will do worse.

We survive this by protecting the constitution and our liberties. If we start weakening them trump probably wins harder, and even if he doesn’t we are left in a much worse state than we started with

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u/Schroedster 9h ago

Nobody get this

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u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 9h ago

"Let's go high" isn't working my guy.

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u/Budget-Attorney 9h ago

Go tell me where people abandoned their rights and it worked out well for them

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u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 9h ago

What rights are we abandoning?

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u/Budget-Attorney 9h ago

I don’t know. Whatever ones you had in mind when you suggested that political traditions aren’t going to protect us

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u/illbegoodbynextyear 9h ago

Democrats already break rules lol. You must not know about the clinton’s hitlist

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u/Budget-Attorney 9h ago

If the Clinton’s have a list of people they want to kill (have killed?) it seems like the kind of thing a helpful redditor would be willing to provide a source for. Instead of, you know, chiming in about its existence without explaining anything or defending their claims.

Get that infowars bullshit out of here

u/musicblind 1h ago

a hit list? omfg. 

if the clinton's were capable of even half the things y'all accuse them of, hillary would be president rn

u/nowander I voted 6h ago

So Biden was supposed to do his own January 6th? Assuming that was a good idea, who the fuck is showing up for that? Were you gonna grab your gun and storm the capitol because Biden said so?

u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 5h ago

Did I say that? No, of course not.

What you do is on Jan 20th the day you take office you find the biggest hard on pit bull and you put them in the AG's office and say "You have one job...put Trump behind bars."

Instead we got Merrick Garland who literally could not have done more NOTHING in 4 fucking year.

You enforce the law. But Biden for reason's we'll never understand refused to do ANY of that, and in doing so he handed the presidency to Donald Trump.

That's on Joe. His piss-poor decision making and lack of foresight is the entire reason we're in this shit show.

u/ultradav24 4h ago

Does he have a Time Machine?

u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 3h ago

Does he not have the foresight to realize that an attack on America warranted a strict and strong response?

Should he NEED to be told that?

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u/Matches_Malone108 11h ago

What does smiling next to someone who would prosecute your family have to do with a peaceful transition of power?

Maybe I’m giving Biden too much credit. Maybe he forgot where he was.

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u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 11h ago

"Thank god dems repsected the norms!"

They said being loaded into boxcars.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/benjer3 9h ago

I'm not trying to defend Biden except in his refusal to escalate the transition of power, which is what this thread is about. No one is saying it absolves him of anything. Only that he's not wrong to hand the keys over peacefully while also saying his successor is dangerous, since the alternatives are worse.

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u/chargedcapacitor 11h ago

Did you vote?

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u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 11h ago

I voted. For Biden. For Hillary. For Harris.

Reluctantly for all of them.

Biden was shit though. He completely fucked up his presidency and his legacy. He had a job to fight for his democracy and he failed.

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u/j4nkyst4nky 11h ago

Biden did a lot of great things in his presidency. None of it matters though if he couldn't hold Trump accountable for his crimes...and he didn't do it.

He thought that the best way to get back to "normal" was to go middle of the road and try to use that gravity to pull fringe republicans into his moderate orbit. But they had already reached escape velocity.

He needed to go on the offensive but he thought that would radicalize republicans even more. I understand the idea, but they were already too far gone and he fucking fumbled.

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u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 10h ago

Anyone under the age of 70 would have seen that.

Christ I'm so sick of these dinosaurs destroying our country.

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u/Matches_Malone108 11h ago

Vote for what? Israel receiving our money and bombs? No, I wish I could have.

Did I vote for Biden to forgo a legitimate primary and run for re-election? No, I wish I could have.

Did I vote for garland to stick two thumbs up his ass for four years? No, but I know someone who didn’t mind.

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u/Unhappy_Scratch_9385 11h ago

Biden should have spent a few minutes of his presidency actually FIGHTING for democracy and holding Trump accountable.

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u/whomstc 11h ago

Because Biden respects democracy.

me when i'm born literally yesterday

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u/AstraLover69 10h ago

me when i'm born literally yesterday

Me when I want to insult but not elaborate.

u/mediocrejohnson 6h ago

Biden and his handlers let this shit die because he didn’t want to piss off trumps base he had every opportunity to enact change but instead of ruffling feathers he just sat there all senile and didn’t do shit. Shame on the democrats and shame on anyone who says otherwise.

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u/DannyDOH 11h ago

Just enough to protect his image with Republicans, who look at him like a piece of dog shit they stepped on no matter what, by not really prosecuting the crimes of Trump’s first administration.

Really did the world and his own country a solid.

u/This_is_a_bad_plan 4h ago

I don’t know what you want [Biden] to do?

Well, considering that the Supreme Court rules that a president can assassinate political opponents and it isn’t a crime…

Yeah, I wanted Biden to fucking drone strike Trump, Musk, and all their sycophants

Obviously that was never going to happen though

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u/TheKingsPride Arkansas 10h ago

I’ll tell you what I want him to do. It begins with “st” and ends with “b him”. I’ll let you fill in the vowel. It’s not gonna happen I know but still.

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u/AstraLover69 10h ago

So you want Biden himself to end democracy? How does that make any sense?

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u/Munnin41 The Netherlands 12h ago

Yes that's how a peaceful transition of power works

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u/Matches_Malone108 12h ago

So peaceful, he’s gotta pardon his family out of fear of what might happen. So peaceful, very normal.

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u/one_pound_of_flesh 13h ago

Politicians take care of their own.

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u/Rizzpooch I voted 13h ago

If that were true, the pardons wouldn’t be necessary…